So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun.

Well, one thing we can say without fear of contradiction: the global economy is one year older, too, but what has it done?

The Sudoko puzzle
Is China changing?
Wages, the rich, and why super rich is bad for the economy
Currency war
Eurozone’s troubles
Tectonic plates
The cult of equities
Technology and Moore’s Law
Best of the year

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) reckons house prices will fall 2 per cent next year, but it is assuming interest rates will remain low. Elsewhere, a growing number of economists and columnists are talking about interest rates going up. This would be bad for the housing market....Read More

Already a retailer has issued a profits warning and has blamed the snow. Meanwhile, the Federation of Small Businesses has called for the government to give a helping hand to businesses that are reeling thanks to the bad weather.

Alexon, the women’s fashion group that includes the Ann Harvey, Eastex and...Read More

Already a retailer has issued a profits warning and has blamed the snow. Meanwhile, the Federation of Small Businesses has called for the government to give a helping hand to businesses that are reeling thanks to the bad weather.

Alexon, the women’s fashion group that includes the Ann Harvey, Eastex and...Read More

The row, or is that outright war, over bank bonuses rumbles on. Vince Cable has never been shy in spouting forth his anti-bank rhetoric, but now even the man who is normally the bank’s friend, Boris Johnson, has made a speech criticising bank bonuses.

Chris Wright, the founder and chairman of Chrysalis, has had some unkind things to say about that TV programme, The X-Factor. He makes a point, and his observations have a resonance that applies beyond the world of music.

It’s that time of the year when predictions start rolling in. Here are a couple of good ones. Gavin Oldham at The Share Centre reckons the FTSE 100 will hit a new all-time high next year, and the Council of Mortgage Lenders sees sharp falls in mortgage borrowing and...Read More

So where do you stand on social media? How often do you Twitter? What’s your Facebook profile like? Are you LinkedIn, on YouTube, or do you blog like crazy? Or are you a cynic, and fail to see how social media can help the bottom line? New research from McKinsey...Read More

And so our energy bills are set to rise, thanks to government subsidies to nuclear and renewable energies, and penalties for energy production via traditional fossil fuels. And many are up in arms. But surely the critics of these plans miss the point.

We know what you are thinking, retail sales are booming and pigs are flying. But numbers are numbers, and they are looking good. The last two days have seen the release of the CBI distributive trades survey, and official data on retail sales from the ONS. The Read More

For quite a while Capital Economics have been bears on gold. As of this week that has changed, with the consultancy now forecasting that the pretty yellow metal could reach $2,000. Mind you, contrarians argue that the time to buy is when the most bullish of investors has turned bearish,...Read More

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) reckons house prices will fall 2 per cent next year, but it is assuming interest rates will remain low. Elsewhere, a growing number of economists and columnists are talking about interest rates going up. This would be bad for the housing market....Read More

For quite a while Capital Economics have been bears on gold. As of this week that has changed, with the consultancy now forecasting that the pretty yellow metal could reach $2,000. Mind you, contrarians argue that the time to buy is when the most bullish of investors has turned bearish,...Read More

The row, or is that outright war, over bank bonuses rumbles on. Vince Cable has never been shy in spouting forth his anti-bank rhetoric, but now even the man who is normally the bank’s friend, Boris Johnson, has made a speech criticising bank bonuses.

The CBI has predicted that interest rates will rise to 2.75 per cent by the final quarter of 2012. The Telegraph has put the CBI projection together with figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and worked out that around three million householders will run into...Read More

Okay, it’s cold. Airports are chaotic. Brits who are currently abroad are struggling to get home for Christmas. Holidaymakers are reconsidering their plans. And High Streets are looking decidedly quiet. But what makes the snow this time around especially unfortunate, is its timing. The consequences may well prove to be...Read More

Economists, huh? Central bankers took credit for that period of seemingly never-ending growth – the period known as NICE, and then when things went pear- shaped they said: “Well it wasn’t my fault.” Alan Greenspan was the worst. The maestro happily took plaudits for keeping inflation down and growth...Read More

China is running out of workers. Around 60 per cent of China’s workforce, or 469 million people, are known as rural. But it seems that a big chunk of these people – around 145 million – spent at least six months away from home last year, presumably working in towns...Read More